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Origin of May-Poles and Garlands

sheriffs of Norwich a hundred herrings, which are to be baked in twenty-four pies or patties, and delivered to the lord of the manor of East Carlton, who is to convey them to the king.

At the coronation of James II. the lord of the manor of Heyden, in Essex, claimed to hold the basin and ewer to the king by virtue of one moiety, and the towel hy virtue of the other moiety of the manor, whenever the king washed before dinner; but the claim was allowed only as to the towel The privileges of the great officers of the ancient British court, were particularly striking. Each was annually presented by the king and queen with a piece of linen and woollen cloth, besides some old clothes from the royal wardrobe. The king's riding-coat was three times a year given to the master of the mews; his caps, saddles, bits, and spurs, became the perquisite of the master of the horse; and the chamberlain appropriated to himself his old clothes and bed-quilts.

The third in rank, in the court of the Anglo-Saxon kings, was, the steward, who had a variety of perquisites, of which the following were the most remarkable :-' As much of every cask of plain ale, and as much of every cask of ale with spiceries, as he could reach with the second joint of the middle finger; and as much of every cask of mead, as he could reach with the first joint of the same finger.' Our next article is on THE ORIGIN OF MAY POLES AND GARLANDS.-It was a custom among the ancient Britons, before they were converted to Christianity, to erect Maypoles, adorned with flowers, in honour of the goddess Flora; and the dancing of milkmaids on the first of May before garlands, ornamented with flowers, is only a corruption of the ancient custom, in compliance with other rustic amusements. The leisure days after seed-time had been chosen by our Saxon ancestors for folk-motes, or conventions of the people. It was not till after the Norman conquest that the Pagan festival of Whitsuntide fully melted into the Christian holiday of Pentecost. Its original name is Whittentide, the time of choosing the wits or wisemen to the wittenagemotte. It was consecrated to Hertha, the goddess of peace and fertility; and no quarrels might be maintained, no blood shed, during this truce of the goddess. Each village, in the absence of the baron at the assembly of the nations, enjoyed a kind of saturnalia. The vassals met upon the common green around the Maypoles, where they erected a village lord, or king, as he was called, who chose his queen. He wore an oaken, and she a hawthorn wreath; and together they gave laws to the rustic